Direct Bookings on Autopilot: the new A.I. that knows what hotel guests want

Hotelchamp now introduces ‘Autopilot’ – new technology set to revolutionise how hotels think about their online guest experience.

“Today’s hotel websites provide the same static experience for every visitor, which is bizarre given how different guests and their preferences are,” says Kristian Valk, CEO of Hotelchamp.Hotelchamp is set to change that with the introduction of Autopilot, an artificial intelligence engine trained to recognise and personalise the experience of every visitor to a hotel’s website.Hotels already spend huge amounts of time and money on guest personalisation – from email campaigns and communication, to advertising and loyalty programs. But most if not all these efforts are funnelled to static, one-size-fits-all websites.“Personalisation is already the standard that guests have come to expect from hotels. The challenge has always been how to deliver that on a website in a scalable and meaningful way,” says Valk.“The truth is, only A.I. can deliver a truly adaptive website experience tailored to every single website visitor. One that brings the right information, interaction or offer, to the right person, and at the right time.”Hotelchamp’s Autopilot is not a chatbot or ‘digital concierge’ – it customises static hotel websites using a range of marketing techniques and tools. With a seamless integration, the result is a living, responsive and personalised experience, guiding guests through the entire direct booking process depending on their characteristics and needs.Hotelchamp’s data science team developed Autopilot using years of data and hundreds of millions of A/B test impressions on what exactly convinces guests to book direct. Autopilot applies this knowledge against a range of factors; including real-time data from a hotel’s website, GDPR-compliant visitor insights and behaviour, and best practices from amongst Hotelchamp’s thousands of hotels.Whilst this may sound complicated, all the hotelier needs to do to activate Autopilot is literally flick a single switch.“We developed Autopilot to make it easy, not just for hoteliers, but also for guests to see the best information on the website. Autopilot makes direct bookings smarter – not harder,” says Valk.“We believe that with this type of technology now available to the hotel industry, hoteliers can bridge the gap between the online experience and the personal service hotels are famous for – a website that knows what guests are looking for, even before they do.”